Brian Offenberger, marketing expert and founder of Right On No Bull Marketing, came to the International Window Film Conference and Tint-Off™ (WFCT) to offer insider’s secrets to making money with social media.

The first myth he busted was that “like us on Facebook” doesn’t actually expand a business’s reach. He recommended using “ethical bribes” such as “fan-only specials” for people who have liked the page.

“A graphics person can make a fan-only deal in no time,” he said.

Next he advocated for the use of hashtags.

“They are methods of classifying things by topics that aid you in finding related thoughts that other people have on the same topic,” Offenberger said, which will help a business gain more followers.

After acquiring greater social media influence, the marketing expert said it’s time to make money.

“Now we have these followers – and we want them to buy,” he said. “These people who are following you – give them a special offer!”

“The ROI for email is amongst the highest for any instrument I use for any of my customers. So why do I want my followers signing up for my email list? The biggest reason is I don’t own Facebook, yelp or twitter but I do own my own email list,” he said. “What happens if Facebook starts charging for businesses? My email list gives me much more control. I use email marketing software because outlook and Gmail are not set up to handle mass emails so they get marked as spam.”

And Offenberger said there is no shame in encouraging people to review your business on these sites.

“Online reviews are going to help you in a million and one ways and help you become more prevalent [in search engine rankings],” he said. “If you have the number one search ranking on google, you get 43 percent of the business.”

Immediately following Offenberger’s session, Interwest Tools’ Patric Fransko held a session that complemented the previous one.

In a seminar called “Using Social Media to Promote Your Window Film Business,” the first thing he recommended was joining LinkedIn, a social networking site for professionals. Once there, business owners should take certain steps.

• Create a personal profile. First, get a formal profile picture, complete the ENTIRE profile and list only related skills. He also said it’s good to have recommendations and not to forget to proofread.
• Create a business profile.For a business profile, Fransko said companies should include a company logo and selective keywords. He said words like “energy efficiency” are effective for window film businesses. Also suggested was regularly posting relevant information. “It might not even be window film related – it might be about how energy usage is going to increase in the coming years,” he said. “Post at least once a week.”
• Build connections. A major step in this process is to upload contacts. He mentioned how a LinkedIn member can import his email list as a way to invite his friends to connect.
• Join relevant groups. “There are groups for just about anything you can imagine – 2.1 million,” Fransko said. “If you do energy savings for commercial properties, there’s probably a group for you.”
• Utilize connections to build business. Fransko said he utilizes direct connections to get warm introductions to 2^nd and 3^rd tier connections he’d like to know.

He then turned to Facebook, first listing some “Facebook fast stats.” There are 1.3 billion total users, nearly 829 million of which are active daily user. 30 million businesses have a Facebook fan page and 20 percent of all Internet traffic in the United States is on that site.

At the end of his presentation, Fransko called up Ty Sullivan from SPF Window Tinting to show how Facebook marketing has worked for his company. With only $190, Sullivan’s tint shop was about to target people located in the same city as them, Hattiesburg, Miss. Over seven days, the ad reached nearly 23,000 people. The population of Hattiesburg is 50,000.

“We reached half those people,” Sullivan said. “You can’t get that return on investment anywhere else.” Altogether, the post has brought in five new customers, paying for itself three times over and then some. Fransko added that posts with pictures are more effective than simple text.

Sullivan contrasted that with the nearly double the money his business spent on Google ads, which only resulted in a single phone call to his business.